The Stockings Are Hung By the Chimney with Care

The last bit of knitting is done and wrapped…

Zelda has had a Christmas bath….

Ahh, the adventures of Zelda! As curious cats will do, Zelda crawled into the kitchen cabinet where we keep our cleaning supplies unbeknownst to my DH who was working on something in the kitchen. He closed the door and went to sit down, then started hearing suspicious noises coming from the kitchen. He opened the cabinet and Zelda emerged covered in I-don’t-know-what, but being as the cleaning stuff is kept in that cabinet, I wasn’t taking a chance at letting her lick something toxic off her fur… so into the tub she went … Zelda is no fan of water … but it was the right thing to do.

I’ll be taking a break from updating the blog the rest of the week as I take time to enjoy family and friends for Christmas and a few extra days.

I hope that you all get to spend your Christmas the same way.

I wish you all the best and urge you to take a few moments to reflect on the goodness of God and the best and greatest gift man has ever received. Happy Birthday to Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord!

Have a very Merry Christmas!

It’s Beginning to Feel a lot like Christmas!

The gifts are wrapped!

Christmas knitting is done except for the toe of a sock.

Here’s a quick peek at the felted purses:

These were both fun. I hope the recipients enjoy them as much as I did making them. There was also a hat for the boy-friend of one of my niece’s, who is hoping his team does well in the Rose Bowl, can you guess which one?

I EVEN managed to squeeze in one more hat for PADs (making the total 21!) Sorry, but I forgot to take a picture of the finished hat before I took it to church this morning. It came out real nice though….

They’re Agitating!

The purses are in the wash machine being felted as I type! Here’s the before:
Stasi’s Jeff Gordon Special:

Debbie’s Fair-Isle Booga:

Close-up of Fair Isle pattern:

The worst part was knitting the miles of I-cord for the handles (not pictured for booga bag). But it feels good to be at this point today.

Obviously I’ll have to wait to post the "after" pictures another day or so, ( once they are completely done) but I’m happy with the so-far results.

Thankfully getting these into the machine today puts me right where I want to be with my gift-knitting schedule. One more small item; ½ of one sock and room to spare for any last minute things! Whew~! I can breathe again.

Peace of Mind and Multi-Tasking

This is how far I was on the felted purse this morning:

This is where I am now:

Just 3 more rounds, the flap and the straps left to do and then the felting!

I probably would be knitting on the straps already, but today was another day with an altered schedule. I had to go out for an appointment this AM and that siphoned off some knitting time. But again, it was important. Had to get the annual mammogram done. Don’t like it much, but it’s worth the few minutes of discomfort once a year to know that there’s nothing wrong. I worked on DH’s gift while I was waiting instead of dragging along the felted purse. A little multi-tasking again. Not much to show yet on that project.

After reading the Yarn Harlot's latest post, I don’t feel quite so bad about my knitting schedule. And I don’t intend to waste any knitting time learning to curl. This was just a quick “break” from knitting to do this post. I have to go start dinner and get a few other things done, but hopefully this bag will be done tonight and the next one ready to cast on.

Wish me luck!

Hats and Other Stuff

I reached my goal of 20 hats! Here are some pictures….

The three I mentioned in the last post:

All 20:

I cast on for the next project on my gift knitting list: a felted bag for my NASCAR-loving niece. I call it the Jeff Gordon Special – it’s the “Felted Blue Bag” pattern from Moda Dea. I’m using Patons Classic Wool in red, yellow and blue to create a sort of striped pattern and you can see the lining fabric peeking out from under the WIP. I had wanted to do flames, but I think the time constraint will make that too tricky an undertaking.

After this one is done, I have another niece to knit a bag for and then the socks for my DH. I figure if I get both bags done by the weekend, I can sneak the socks in here and there and finish them in time … otherwise he’s getting the one sock that’s already finished with an IOU for the second (tee, hee).

Most of the knitting I did was over the weekend. I didn't get too much of the knitting I had hoped to do done today. Two of our "Senior Saints" from church and I went to the nursing home to deliver some lap robes they have been stitching and I had several errands and things that kept me out of the house most of the day. It was nice to see the people who are benefitting from our efforts and the one "Senior Saint" who is almost 90 herself really enjoyed presenting the lap robes. So even though my schedule was adjusted, the day wasn't really lost.

Detour

Another detour today; I was out the majority of the day finishing up with the car repairs and mailing packages and meeting DH for lunch and some shopping and stuff; got a little knitting done, but no pictures taken. The gold hat is done, blue/gray mushroom is in progress, and one more hat is cast on. Pictures soon!

Where I am… (or where am I?)

Whew, I got hat number 17 (earflap hat) done and thought I was done with number 18 (another "mushroom cap"), too. Well, that is I finished it last night except for the weaving in of ends. I had grand plans of doing that this morning and then casting on number 19. I knitted away blissfully all day yesterday thinking that this hat was going to be just about perfect. Silly girl! I noticed it seemed a tad on the big side when I bound off, but put it down and went to bed thinking maybe it was just because I was tired and I’d double check the size in the morning. Good thing I didn’t weave in any ends! It wasn’t just a tad on the big side… it was sasquatch size! Gargantuan! Huge with a capital XL. So, I did what I knew I had to do… Yep! Ribbit, to the frog pond I went. No pics of the offensive thing. But here’s a start on the redo and the second hat I had planned on casting for (76 st hat), yep, I’m taking up multi-tasking to make up for lost time due to hoodie tragedy and hat overestimation. So, this being Thursday, I should have had plenty of time for knitting and other things that needed to be finished up, WRONG! The car’s engine was making a loud sound whenever we drove it, so it had to go to the shop for a look-see; the shop is right across the street from the Mall so I figured I could get a little last minute shopping done while I waited and I did bring one of the hats with in case it took longer than the shopping. Good thing. The car’s still in the shop and could be another day. (Won’t even mention the too big repair bill too close to Christmas). Let’s just say I did get a good section of the hat knit, got a little shopping done. (Why are they always out of the size you need?) At least the gifts that need to be mailed are ready … just need to get them wrapped and into mailing boxes... this afternoon. I can do it! Oh, yeah, and I still have to fix the tree that Zelda has been trying to dismantle one ornament at a time.

Wait; did I mention the mouse? It seems we might have a mouse living in our storage area. Fortunately it’s closed off from the rest of the house (at least we hope the mouse can’t open the door). So my husband not being much with animals has put me in charge of (buying and) setting the traps. Ewww.

Well, I better get busy; I’ll try to do a hat update tomorrow after things settle down.

No Sun Today

Yes, it was another grey, icy, rainy day. Just the kind of day that it is good to stay in and knit; so I did. I worked on the hoodie and yes, it is finished. Here’s a look at it.

Awww, so cute. Now, I need to get busy with some hats.

I think Saucey is starting to sense a looming deadline. Do you think she’s been trying to learn to knit?

The Decorating is done…

Right down to the cat. (hee, hee)… actually, she didn’t like it much, so I took it off, but doesn’t she look pretty?

The thing that slowed me down with putting up the decorations is that after moving so many times, I find myself with boxes of many decorations, but no clue how they will go up in the current space. It takes a while to sort thru things and figure out exactly how to arrange it all so it doesn’t look like a total eclectic mess. I finally got things put up in a way I like. I ended up not putting up any lights due to the abundance of snow outside and we opted out of a big tree, so I just have one table top and one mini up this year (in different areas). I got a little sad for a few minutes when I opened my box of ornaments because there are so many memories of Christmas past there, but then I remembered that they were just that; only memories and the spirit of Christmas wasn’t in the ornaments, but in why we celebrate the season. Sometimes I need to remember that.

Hoodie II is progressing and I hope to finish tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully there will be no more detours from the knitting schedule once it’s done. I have 3 or 4 hats to get done before Sunday.

If tomorrow isn’t as gray as today was (and blogger cooperates) maybe I can get a few pictures of the Christmas decorations. I plan on taking them anyway so that next year I can remember what goes where and get it done faster.

The Week that Wasn’t…

What it should have been. All I wanted to do this week was crawl under a comfy blanket and hibernate.

I wish I could say I was productive, but I really haven’t kept up my standard. Tuesday, I finished up the Hoodie (but there’s more to that story).

On Wednesday, I was in a knitting funk; I stopped and started a lot of little things. There was also dithering about a possible trip to MI this weekend which thankfully fell through. Thursday, I made a mess of the house trying to decorate for Christmas. (It’s a little better, but still needs work). Today was work and shopping (since I didn’t on Weds). So I’ve only been home a little while.

Oh, yeah, the “rest of the story”; I finished the Hoodie for Eli but it befell disaster. Let me just tell you, I still have some long ago knitters’ admonition ringing in my ears on this one. “Never Knit a Knot!” In this case, include manufacturer’s yarn joins. Ugh, I should have known better, when I did the second swatch, I noticed a couple of these joins or slubs in the yarn. The yarn came in center pull balls already, but I re-wound the first skein for the sweater just to be safe and started knitting away happily. It was fine, so I grabbed another one. I figured maybe just the skein I swatched with was bad and foolishly started that skein without re-winding it to check for bad places. Mistake! I knit halfway up the back and one of those little critters appeared. It seemed tiny and harmless at the time so I just left it there. No problem, right! What could go wrong? Well see for yourself…

Yep, when I washed it, the darn thing came apart. The stitch just disintegrated. So now there is a big hole in the back of the really cute Hoodie I just knit for my Grandson. Waaah! The good people at Knit Picks have refunded me for the bad skeins I used. I’m still deciding whether to send the 11 other skeins that were left over back. (Yeah, I made sure I had plenty – this is a gift we’re talking about, I wasn’t taking any chances when I ordered). Okay, so you’re thinking maybe it’s fixable. Well maybe it is, but my solution was to start the whole sweater over with a different yarn. (It’s about to the halfway point)

So the tally this week is one sweater finished but not “present-able”; another sweater started; One hat started, but neglected; A gift exchange gift (for party tonight) needing wrapped; Christmas decorating only partially done. Oh yeah, and I need to bake 4 dozen cookies between now and tomorrow afternoon. But at least I have ingredients.

So, just to end this on a good note: here’s a little video of Zelda helping with the garland


And, she also helped unload the dishwasher:

I’m going to go decorate or bake…. Have a nice weekend!

Under the Weather

I finished the hoodie, but haven't had a chance to take pics yet. I had a check up yesterday and got a couple immunizations. I wasn't really up to much today. I promise there will be pics when I feel better. Oh, and we're getting more snow tonight.

Safe and Warm

We survived the weekend. On Saturday we got this: Which wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been; snow, but not as much ice as was forecast; it rained on Sunday, it wasn’t warm enough to melt the snow, but it didn’t get quite cold enough to freeze everything, either – now we just have crunchy snow.

Zelda tested it out for us and reported it to be uninviting

Saucey stayed in.

Oh, and I got this:

my swap package from the Harvest Sock Swap. My partner Sharon made the “I Love Gansey Sock” in a nice sage green color. She also tucked in several other nice goodies. Some yummy sock yarn from the "a swell yarn shp" site and another pattern called Falling Leaves; some leaf shaped chocolate and a cool little tote bag that comes all folded up inside a little mini-tote. Perfect for keeping in my purse so when I go to the store for just a couple items I can use it instead of taking home another plastic bag.

On the knitting front, the hoodie is almost: That is it’s a complete sweater minus the hood and pocket. With gauge issues behind me, this turned out to be a very quick knit. The only part of the pattern I changed was that I knitted it mostly in the round instead of flat as the pattern calls for. I switched to working back and forth for the raglan shaping only because of using two colors. I worked the color sections like intarsia. Otherwise in one color I would have just worked in the round right up to the neck shaping. Hopefully I’ll have a finished picture to post in the next day or so.

D’oh!

I suppose it would be less stressful to read the directions completely before starting!

(Sweater progressing uneventfully... now)

Ooopsie! Hee, hee…